


The Fangirl

by Strummer_Pinks



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Comic-Con, F/M, Fangirls, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-21 09:42:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10682703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strummer_Pinks/pseuds/Strummer_Pinks
Summary: Geeky fangirl Belle has an interesting day at work when the actor who used to play her favourite TV character twenty years ago walks into her comic shop.Belle freaks out.  Washed up actor Rumford Gold just wants to find a bathroom.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Endangered_Slug](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endangered_Slug/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Super Colossal Adventures of The Damselfly and The Spinner](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2811713) by [Endangered_Slug](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endangered_Slug/pseuds/Endangered_Slug). 



The Fangirl

“Oh…oh…God!”  
Belle popped her head up from the long box where she’d been busy putting several hundred issues of Uncanny X-men into numerical order, only to be met by the same pair of brown eyes she’d copied at least several hundred times over the years looking from the covers of Starlog magazines to her paper and the pencil in her hand over and over again, just to get the likeness right. She would have known those eyes anywhere, even if the face was quite different, rounder, the hair shorter and grayer and the nose was completely wrong, but…those eyes, so familiar.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” said the voice and that—that she’d recognize anywhere. 

“My son wants to buy this,” he said. 

She glanced down to see a Baymax Funko Pop clutched in his hand, the one with the blurry spider web tattoo she’d nearly forgotten from the show and nearly vibrated off the floor with contained excitement as she reached out to take it from him. 

XXX

Gold instantly started to regret his decision to let Neal drag him into their local comic shop—not simply for the fact that he’d soon be our of pocket $15 for a hunk of plastic in a fancy box. 

“It is you!” babbled the young woman behind the counter. 

“Wot?” Gold looked behind him. It was the only thing that made sense, she was clearly talking to someone standing behind him, but there was no one. All he saw were the displays of pricey classic comic issues in clear plastic wraps. 

Then he felt Neal’s hand tugging at his elbow. “Papa,” he piped up. “I think I gotta pee.” 

Gold turned to his son with a sigh. “Neal, we were just at Hero Burgers and I asked you if you had to use the toilet and you said you were okay!”

“But I didn’t have to then!”

Regretfully Gold turned back to the woman at the cash register who appeared to be having some sort of self contained mental episode. 

“Do you have a bathroom he could use?”

But instead of waving him over to the nearest restroom, she pointed straight at Gold like an apparition. “Spinner!”  
Damn it, he’d always had an expressive face, it was one of the reasons he’d gone into acting, but at certain times it could really be inconvenient. There was no way to take it back now, he clearly knew exactly who she meant.

Her eyes widened as the truth was confirmed. “It is you. What’ve you been up to for twenty years?”


	2. What have you been up to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this got a little angsty. Trigger warnings for hospitals, car accidents, serious injury etc. 
> 
> Also-- Has-been actor Gold is possibly my favourite Gold ever! 
> 
> Ever since "Cloud of Possibility" by Bad Faery http://bad-faery.tumblr.com/post/97198344390/a-cloud-of-possibility-ix 
> 
> Also, a little bit of a call out to "Star Force" from WorringlyInnocent's Friendships and Fandoms http://archiveofourown.org/works/5053462/chapters/11620915
> 
> Though Belle and Gold are obviously different characters in this than they are in that story. You guys are all my favourites!!! 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> XXXXX

Gold gawped at her. What had he been up to for twenty years? Had she really just asked him that?

Well let’s see, there’s was that fight with Milah, and then him storming off in a huff to go on a night-time motorcycle ride to clear his head, with okay, to be perfectly honest, one or two beers under his belt, zooming down the PCH another typical, poorly lit American motorway. What did they spend their taxes on? Then being sideswiped by some rich douche’s Porsche SUV going 80 miles an hour. Of course he’d had a helmet on which prevented him from being killed or brain damaged, but did precious little for the side of his body that hit the asphalt.

After that came the hospital and the surgeries and the rehab hospital. Of course his friends from the show did visit occasionally, but it just made him too angry, hearing about them having fun without him and Star Force getting really successful all of a sudden. 

The show only took off once the last season he’d been in was broadcast. After that the cast was able to demand twice the salary they’d started with, but not him of course, because he was busy trying to learn how to breathe out of a recently restructured nose and walk and go to the bathroom on his own again and and then there were the painkillers and the infection and more painkillers and the depression and addiction to painkillers and drug rehab for that. 

He had some money saved up for them to buy a house with, but soon that ran out and then it was Milah supporting them with her work as he got himself straightened out and having to support them with her work. Then Neal came along, and it just made more sense for him to stay home with the baby considering he wasn’t getting an acting job any time soon. He still went out for auditions occasionally, but even the few jobs he managed to snag wouldn’t hire him once they found out he would be nearly impossible to insure. 

Then there was the move to Toronto where they knew no one after Milah got a job on a TV series filming in Canada. Soon Neal was old enough to start school. Once they arrived Canada under Milah’s work visa from the studio, Gold still had to wait to get his own immigration documents cleared, before he could work legally. There were so many stalls and half starts just to get everything processed, that by the time Gold could work as anything other than a volunteer, their marriage was already breaking up and Milah’s show had been cancelled. 

The costar she was having an affair with was going back to England, and she was determined to follow him back to where she’d originally come from. There was some talk of Neal following her, of getting to know the rest of his extended family, but Gold quickly nixed the idea with some excuse about not wanting Neal to have to change school in the middle of the year and lose all his friends. Milah needed little convincing to let Neal stay with his father. It seemed pretty clear to Gold that the new, younger boyfriend was none to keen on having a small boy around to put a damper on their lifestyle.

Gold started working as a supermarket checkout guy. It only lasted for a year, and then he was let go when the store brought in a new automated checkout machine. The loss of the money was a blow, but at least he got some severance. Truth be told he was only a few days away from quitting anyway, because standing for that many hours a day was literally destroying what was left of his right foot. At lest he had his official Canadian papers now and could apply for disability. There were always problems for him at the job centre though, a problem at explaining that he could work, that he wanted to work and that there were days when he could walk perfectly fine, but others when he could barely get out of bed, but how exactly did one put that on a “check which box applies to you” form? 

Still he didn’t go around with a head full of doom and gloom. Actually, he found himself even becoming somewhat cheerful at times, when it was just him and Neal together, playing board games or reading stories. He suppose it was nice to relax, now that he didn’t have Milah constantly telling him what a failure he was every time he turned around. Not that he didn’t think he was a failure, it was just nice not to hear it from someone else twenty-four seven. 

He’d learned to be thankful for what he had—a beautiful son in good health who loved him and for some unfathomable reason thought he hung the moon, a nice warm apartment in a building with a working elevator in a safe neighbourhood with a good school for Neal to attend, enough food to eat and clothes to wear and some cash for the occasional treat for his son, like a plastic Baymax and no longer being constantly in overdraft at the bank thanks to the occasional influxes of money he’d got out of Milah with the help of a pro bono lawyer last year. 

One advantage of growing up semi-homeless like Gold had, he could almost always say he’d had it worse than he did currently. It was something he kept reminding himself every day, to keep things in perspective. At least Neal would have a better, more stable childhood than he’d had; he’d able to stay in school and keep the same group of friends, play on a sports team and get a solid education and never be hungry or cold. He’d made a silent promise to his son, the moment he first held him in his arms as a tiny baby, that he’d always have at least one parent around who loved him without question, who would do anything so that he’d never have to worry about where he was going to sleep at night or whether he’d have anything to eat for dinner. 

But… and wasn’t there always a but? 

There was always a tiny niggling part of him at the back of his mind, that couldn’t forget that he’d been the most popular character on the show, that he’d been the one with more fanmail than David, and what would have happened if he hadn’t gotten into that crash that day, if he’d kept appearing on the show after it got more popular, where could his career have gone? In his greatest fantasy he was off in the stratosphere, winning awards awards galore, getting serious parts in all the best hard hitting TV dramas and acting in edgy indie movies, unconcerned about his paycheck.

Even if that was all fantasy, he knew in reality, he’d been at least partially responsible for the subsequent success of Star Force. The big jump in popularity had actually come off the back of that second season where he’d had the most screen time. He’d been a huge part of the twist ending in the season finale with that character reveal that set up a huge cliffhanger for season three, the suspense that the writers could never properly deliver on because they had to write him out of the show at the last minute. Where would he be now? Getting an Oscar? A BAFTA? Probably not. Still married? Perhaps. Still working? Yes, absolutely, because other than Neal the work was the only thing he’d ever truly loved with all his heart. 

What had he been up to for twenty years? 

“That’s really none of your business,” he said to her with a bitter twist of his lips.


	3. Picking Coffee Beans in Guatnemala

“That’s really none of your business,” he said to her with a bitter twist of his lips. 

“Daaaad, I really have to go!” whined Neal.

“If you could just show us to the bathroom,” he said and bared his teeth in what he hoped was his unfriendliest approximiation of a smile, “please.”

“Uh y-yeah, yeah sure. Sorry, I-I-‘m sorry,” stammered the poor girl and she looked so instantly deflated, Gold wanted to kick himself. Of course, she didn’t know his history, hadn’t meant anything by what she’d said. She was just a fan-- still a fan despite all the years of him doing nothing to speak of acting-wise—possibly the only one he still had left and now he’d botched that up as well. Great. 

“Over- over here,” she said softly. 

He followed her to the back of the store with Neal. The bathroom was dark and Neal hung back. Gold reached over and flicked on the light. He tried to follow his son in, anything to not remain outside with the woman whose dreams he’d just shattered, but Neal pulled the door in. “I can go by myself, Dad! Jeez!” and the door shut behind him leaving Gold by himself in the comic book store next to the hyper-ventilating store manager with a Batman symbol tattooed on her wrist. 

“My name’s Belle by the way! What’s your—of course you’re Rumford Gold, silly me! I know your name,” she giggled nervously in a high pitched register. “I’m really sorry, I don’t usually—don’t usually act like this it’s just I tend to babble when I’m nervous and I’m to be honest feeling so completely starstruck right now it’s like it’s not even real. You don’t know—when I was a little girl I used to stand at this very counter in this very shop back when it was a florist’s shop, reading magazines and fanfiction and dreaming I’d just look up one day and there you’d be walking in through the door of my Dad’s store and now—here you are! My God, I’ve been a fan of yours since I was three and my Mom took me to see my very first movie in the theatre and it was Sand Pirates!”

“Sand Pirates,” Gold repeated with a grimace. “Who could forget Sand Pirates?” Certainly not him, playing an alien villain covered in shiny gold-green scales had him picking glitter out of his clothes and hair for weeks after they’d wrapped filming. Milah called it his “glam rock period” which he actually thought was rather clever.

“There was a Star Force reunion show on Ellen last year! All the main cast who were still alive were there, even Lacey and she didn’t come in until season six! We thought you were—“ she bit her lip.

“Don’t worry, I thought I was dead too for a while, turns out I was just in Nebraska.” 

“Nebraska? What?”

“Oh, uh, it’s just a quote—“

“A quote?”

“From ‘Unforgiven,’’ he said feeling sheepish, “I just always wanted to use it.”

She nodded a look of profound understanding on her face. “I think my favourite line is that one about being in a barber shop quartet in Skopje, Illinois from the Usual Suspects. It’s such a random quote, but I always find myself trying to work it into a conversation, just to see if people are paying attention.”

“Personally I prefer picking coffee beans in Guatnamala,” he replied and this time the smile was genuine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quotes from two of my all time favourite movies: Unforgiven and the Usual Suspects. 
> 
> I like to think Belle and Gold are both film buffs:)


	4. Free DVDs

Neal came out of the toilet. “Did you wash your hands?” asked Gold on autopilot.

“Uh—“ Neal went back in, leaving the door open behind him as he washed. “Dad, who’s Spinner?”

“You don’t know?” asked Belle aghast. “Only the best ever character on Star Force as well as any TV show scifi or otherwise since FOREVER!” 

“Really?” asked Neal curiously. “Are you sure? I mean, I’ve seen Star Force, it’s the one with the space station that’s alive that breaks away from the federation and—“

“No that’s Star Force: Renegade— he was on Star Force: First Command the one where they get stuck in the Delta quadrant and spend the whole series trying to find a way home. ”

“It was on back before you were born,” Gold explained to Neal.

“Aw, how come I always miss the cool stuff? Everything always happened before I was born! Can you still watch it now?”

“Probably if you look on the internet, maybe late night TV— we might have some old DVDs of it hanging around in the storage locker somewhere. Tell you what, when I go home we’ll have a look and---“

“Don’t be ridiculous!” exclaimed Belle and pulled a DVD box set off the shelf. “This has every single episode of the entire series, including the pilot that was never shown on network TV, audition tapes of the lead actors, promo films, the reunion show and writer and director commentary and a collectable model of one of four rescue ships from the show.”

“Wow, that is thorough,” said Gold appreciatively. He turned the shrink wrapped box over in his hand to look for the price-- $79.99. “Hmmmm… well maybe next time.”

“Oh! I didn’t mean for you to buy it! No no no don’t be ridiculous. It’s yours for keeps! If only one Star Force DVD can go to a good home that is reason enough to make me smile and trust me, your home—well there couldn’t be one better! Please, please take it.”

“Oh we couldn’t possibly—“

“It would be an honour.”

“Uh…” Gold wasn’t sure she’d be saying that if she knew the state of his tiny shit-box flat above the convenience store.

But before Gold could say anything Neal eagerly grabbed the box. He goggled at the picture on the back cover—a publicity still of Gold in full Spinner make-up and some kind of future tech breathing apparatus with a tiny green furred alien perched on his shoulder. “What’s that?” 

Gold rolled his eyes. “Mispenti— stupid animatronic thing never worked properly. Honestly though, I think the wee thing got more fan mail than I did.” 

“Really? It was animatronic?” asked Belle. 

“Only part of the time. Whenever it had to move separately from me, like jump on a box or turn on a monitor or something, it was this puppeteer guy Dov Bernstein from Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop moving the arms and legs and turning the head from below.”

**Author's Note:**

> "What have you been doing for twenty years?" clearly comes from T2 which I saw last weekend. I think I could watch an entire movie of Begbie & son robbery co. or Renton and Sick Boy just watching TV in Sick Boy's messy apartment looking hot. What does this have to do with this story? Absolutely nothing.
> 
> This story is actually located in a real place though... my local comic shop Paradise which I've been going to since I was in high school https://paradisecomics.com/  
> (Not telling how old I am now, nuh-uh). 
> 
> Clearly I have been inspired by you wonderful Endangered Slug! Where did you get that name by the way? I've been reading your work for literally years in this fandom.  
> *Bows before Sluggy in respect*  
> Always a pleasure.


End file.
